Michael Ballaban

Another day, another Stupid Saudi Cleric says A Very Stupid Thing. This time, Stupid Saudi Cleric Sheikh Saleh al-Lohaidan has said that if fragile women with their fragile ovaries managed to get behind the wheel of a car, they can damage said ovaries. Idiot.

Lest you think Sheikh al-Lohaidan is just some guy sitting somewhere in Saudi Arabia, let me clarify that he sits as one of only 21 members of the Council of Senior Scholars, Saudi Arabia's highest official religious body. Somehow they let him on this council. I don't know how. Idiot.

Sheikh al-Lohaidan opened his mouth and made his comments in response to a campaign calling for women to protest the Saudi ban on allowing them to drive on October 26th, even though the campaign's website was recently blocked within the Kingdom, according to GulfNews.com:

“Physiological science” has found that driving “automatically affects the ovaries and pushes up the pelvis”, Shaikh Saleh Al Lohaidan warned women in remarks to local news website Sabq.org.

“This is why we find that children born to most women who continuously drive suffer from clinical disorders of varying degrees,” he said.

In case you really need it spelled out (and I don't know why you would), Al-Lohaidan is not a doctor and his claims are completely and totally moronic and are an embarrassment to humanity as a whole.

Al-Lohaidan unfortunately did not elaborate on his opinion of bikes, since women are allowed to ride those in Saudi Arabia.